As a part time Gamer Geek I picked up a Xbox 360 for Christmas last year. So here I am with the latest in Xbox hardware and what have I been playing most of the time for the last two months, Lumines Live, a fairly simple puzzle game. For those of you who haven’t played it, it’s a Tetris like game (And if you haven’t played Tetris go crawl back under your rock.) but instead of trying to complete lines your goal is to create squares of color that don’t get erased until a sweeping line crosses the screen. The real hook with Lumines Live is the music changing every level and each being a hitting club mix dance tune. As the music changes so does the look of the game so not only do you have to get use to the new speed at which the block drop and the sweep moves, but what was nice white and red squares is now white and gray squares. That is the hardest part of the game for me, my color vision is a bit messed up (I see the 21 not the 74 in this test circle) so these shifts in color make it a bit hard to adjust. But, what also makes the game tricky is the sweep as some levels progress the blocks not only start falling faster but the sweep slows down. So while blocks are still stacking up while you are waiting for the completed squares to disappear. There are also add ons that give you more Skins (levels) that keep the game interesting.

Besides the Basic game there is also three other modes. Vs CPU is you versus the computer on how many boxes you complete. Puzzle mode in which you use the colored squares to create different shapes (dog, cross, star). And, Mission mode where you complete a task like erase all in two moves.  All in all it a fun game that combines two of my favorite things, puzzle games and club music.

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